LutheranTheology.com

Part 12

General Justification

We now point out the items which, according to Walther, are essential even in our time if we wish to keep the doctrine of justification pure. Walther says: “In the pure doctrine of justification, as our Lutheran Church has once again set it forth from God’s Word and placed it upon a lampstand, there are three points in particular: 1. the doctrine of the universal and complete redemption of the world through Christ; 2. the doctrine of the power and efficacy of the means of grace; and 3. the doctrine of faith.”1 Where there is agreement on these points, there is true agreement on the doctrine of justification and, indeed, on the whole of Christian doctrine in general. Where one or more of these points are neglected, as is the case with the Protestant sects and with modern rationalistic-synergistic Lutherans, the doctrine of justification is falsified, even if outwardly, in terminology, one agrees with the orthodox Church, i.e., even if one says that man is justified before God by grace alone through faith for Christ’s sake and not by the works of the Law.2 We will first give a brief summary of Walther’s expositions on these points.

If someone denies the universality of redemption, that is, if he along with Calvin denies that Christ redeemed all and that God, in the Gospel, earnestly offers grace to all without distinction, he certainly overturns the doctrine of justification. For with such a doctrine, the individual sinner cannot be certain of his own redemption without an extraordinary, immediate revelation. Furthermore: if someone teaches that Christ indeed redeemed all men, but not completely, i.e., if someone teaches as if Christ merely made the forgiveness of sins possible, but that the forgiveness of sins or justification is not already present for every sinner, then faith and conversion are made into a meritorious cause of the forgiveness of sins, and the doctrine of justification by grace for Christ’s sake is overturned. If someone teaches falsely regarding the means of grace, i.e., if he does not teach that God offers grace to the sinner in Word and Sacrament and that the sinner is to seek and find grace in Word and Sacrament, he thereby tells the sinner to find grace in his subjective state of conversion and renewal, i.e., in human works. Finally, if someone teaches falsely regarding faith, if he does not teach that faith is trust in the grace offered in the Word, but instead identifies faith with feeling, then once again, instead of the grace of God, the condition of the human heart is made the foundation of righteousness and salvation. If someone teaches falsely about faith by attributing its creation to human cooperation or to man’s good behavior, then once again, even if he uses the phrase “by faith alone,” he surrenders “by grace and for Christ’s sake” and thus also the pure doctrine of justification.

With that said, this subject seems so important to us that we wish to elaborate a little further on each of these three points using Walther’s abundant statements which we will here provided.

To the right doctrine of justification belongs, firstly,

the right biblical doctrine of the complete redemption of all men through Christ.

In order to bring the complete redemption through Christ into the light, Walther considers it essential to emphasize that even before faith, grace, righteousness, and salvation are present for every man; that even before faith, God is perfectly reconciled in Christ with all sinners; that even before faith, every sinner is righteous before God according to its acquisition and the divine intention,3 or according to the judgment which God already delivered concerning all men in the resurrection of Christ.4 “A justification has not only been made possible, but has been acquired and accomplished.”5 It is of the utmost importance to Walther to reject the notion that man, through his faith and conversion, first makes God fully favorable toward him, or first completes his redemption and righteousness. Certainly, a man must be converted to be saved, but conversion is not the means by which God saves but rather the way in which man comes to faith, which faith does nothing else than accept the complete redemption which God has already given.6

The Enthusiasts usually imagine that Christ accomplished what Scripture calls reconciliation so that God might now take a person into heaven simply because of his conversion. They do not believe that everything without exception that had to be done in order for God to save us and give us eternal life, has already been done through Christ. Something, they think, still remains for man to do, and this “something” is conversion. But Scripture teaches that Christ has done everything and has already obtained reconciliation with God, righteousness, etc.; that it already present, and is distributed in the holy Christian Church through the Gospel. Now no one has anything further to do than to accept this salvation. This is what we mean when we speak of a complete redemption: Not that man already has some things and God supplies the rest; nor that God has done some things and man adds what is missing; but that God has already done everything all by Himself.7

This teaching, as Walther repeatedly emphasizes, is the characteristic feature of Christian doctrine, that which distinguishes Christian doctrine from heathenism. Therefore, whoever denies this doctrine denies the whole of Christianity. “That one can obtain grace or the forgiveness of sins for oneself,” says Walther, “the heathen also believed; but that the forgiveness of sins, acquired by another, is already there, the heathen knew nothing of.” And in another place: “While all religions except Christianity teach what man himself must do, in order to be be saved, the Christian religion, on the contrary, teaches not only how men are one day to be eternally saved, but how they already have been saved. According to the doctrine of the Christian religion, man is already redeemed, is already freed from sin and all misery, and God is already reconciled with him. The Christian religion says to man: You do not need to redeem yourself and reconcile yourself with God. Christ has already done all that for you. Nothing is left for you but to believe this, that is, to accept this. It is precisely in this that the Christian religion differs from all other religions. The Jew says: If you want to be righteous, you must keep the Law of Moses; the Turk says: If you want to be saved, you must follow the Koran; the Papists say: If you want to go to heaven, you must do good works, repent of your sins, and make satisfaction for them yourself, and if you want to rise very high, enter a monastery; and all the sects that falsify Christianity, without exception, impose something on man that he must do to become righteous and saved before God. The Lutheran Church, on the other hand, according to God’s Word, says to man: Everything is already done; you are already redeemed, you are already made righteous before God, you are already saved; you therefore have nothing to do first in order to redeem yourself; you do not first have to reconcile yourself with God and earn yourself salvation. You need only believe that Christ, the Son of God, has already done all this for you, and through this faith you shall participate in it and be saved.”8

That grace, righteousness, salvation, reconciliation, etc., already exist before faith — Walther further explains — is also required by the very concept of “faith,” and whoever denies the former must also deny that we are justified and saved through faith. If I am to be saved by the fact that I believe that I am redeemed, that I am reconciled with God, that my sins are forgiven, then all of this must already be there beforehand. As surely as God’s Word promises us that we shall be justified, reconciled with God, and saved through faith, so surely must all these things already be there before my faith, and they only wait for me to accept them. That man is justified by faith alone is therefore possible because what is necessary for salvation is already present and accomplished, so that all that is necessary on my part is to accept it. But this acceptance is what Scripture calls “faith.” Since God takes into heaven all who believe, righteousness and reconciliation must already be there and accomplished. — All who do not allow reconciliation and righteousness to be perfect before faith, do not regard faith as a mere hand that receives what was acquired by Christ, but as a work through which man cooperates toward his redemption and righteousness, as a condition that man fulfills and for the sake of which God receives man into heaven.9

Only when complete redemption is upheld in this way can the concept of the Gospel also be upheld. Why is Christ’s doctrine called the Gospel or good news? Because when I preach the Gospel, I preach nothing else than what has already been acquired and given to men and what they should therefore accept and in which they should heartily rejoice. The Gospel is the good news that Christ has done the work that we should have done and yet could not do, and that the heavenly Father, through the resurrection of our Redeemer, has given a sign from heaven that He is completely satisfied.10 The Gospel proclaims the peace which God has made with men.11 It must be emphasized with all seriousness that God’s wrath has been turned away from all men through Christ’s work, and that through the Gospel everyone is invited: Now receive this grace! If a preacher had to stand before his audience with the thought: God’s wrath still rests upon them, and they must be moved to reconcile Him — it would be terrifying; but because he knows that reconciliation has already been accomplished for all and God’s wrath against all is extinguished, therefore he can speak confidently: Be reconciled to God; just accept His hand of grace.12 Whoever will not preach the Gospel in this way can preach the Koran or Talmud or the Pope’s law or whatever else he wants; but if he wants to (preach the Gospel and) make Christians joyful, let him preach this joyful news.13 And: “Because all men are reconciled with God and the Gospel is the message of this, it is now such an inexpressible grace to live under the sound of the Gospel.” The Enthusiasts, of course, concerning Christ’s work, have the idea that Christ, through His actions, only made it possible for man to obtain grace through his own efforts. Likewise, it is papal doctrine that man secures the salvation that Christ made possible through his own repentance, penance, and other good works. But this denies the Gospel that Christ commanded the Church to preach.

According to Walther, the scriptural presentation of complete redemption as a prerequisite for the right doctrine of justification also includes the doctrine that Christ’s death and resurrection already constitutes a justification of the whole world of sinners. “Just as by the vicarious death of Christ,” says Walther, “the sin-guilt of the whole world has been blotted out and the punishment for it has been endured, so also through the resurrection of Christ, righteousness, life, and salvation have been restored to the whole world and have come upon all men in Christ as the representative of all mankind.” “Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead is the actual absolution of the whole world of sinners” and “The resurrection of Christ is the fully valid justification of all men”; such are the themes of Walther’s Easter sermons.14 Many, even among preachers, do not really know what to do with the resurrection of Christ. They read here that Christ raised Himself, there that the Father raised Him, and they do not know how to reconcile the two. Thus sometimes they think that Christ rose to prove His divinity; and other times, that He was raised to prove the possibility and certainty of our resurrection. As true as both are, neither are the chief thing. Christ would not have died and then risen again only to prove His divinity, and the possibility of our resurrection had already been proven through the raising of others before Christ. The chief thing remains that God, through Christ’s resurrection, declared: Christ has now paid for the sins of the whole world; it is therefore free from its guilt; now the whole world can shout “Victory!”, for its freedom from sin and its righteousness is won. Furthermore: When God raised His Son from the dead, He did not forgive Him His own sins, but those of all mankind which He had taken upon Himself; there He did not justify Christ from His own guilt, but from our guilt, which He had allowed to be imputed to Him. Thus the whole world has already been justified through the resurrection of Christ.15

This does not contradict the fact that man is justified through faith, for when we speak of faith, we are emphasizing the personal appropriation of this acquired righteousness on the part of man and its imputation on the part of God. But this would not be possible if the world had not first been justified through Christ’s death and resurrection, that is, if condemnation in His death had not been followed by acquittal in His resurrection.16 And this justification applies not only to the whole but to all individual men. “If one asks whether it can be said that the whole is indeed acquitted, but not the individuals, the answer is: God is reconciled through Christ with all and with every individual.”17

This doctrine of a general justification of all men before faith is not a theological construction, but a biblical doctrine, and indeed biblical not only in its content — which would already be completely sufficient — but also in its expression. “This doctrine,” says Walther, “is explicitly stated in Rom. 5:18 (‘Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life’), and it is therefore not merely a biblical doctrine, but also a biblical expression, that the justification of life has come upon all men. Only a Calvinistic exegesis could explain this passage to mean that only the elect are justified.”

Although Scripture in most places speaks of the justification which happens at the moment when a person comes to faith, and accordingly in ecclesiastical usage justification through faith is simply called the justification of a poor sinner,18 yet the doctrine of the general justification of all men before faith, clearly attested by Scripture in several places, is of the greatest importance. No one should think that this matter is just a squabble over words. Rather, it is about upholding the most important thing against attacks and error. We must earnestly pursue the doctrine of general justification, especially in this land of sects and Enthusiasts; for though they still teach that man is justified by faith, one will soon notice that they speak of faith in a way that once again makes faith into the effective cause of justification, and thereby robs the Lord Christ of His honor.19 Without such general justification before faith, there is no justification through faith. Walther further explains20 that [in such a case] we could not even speak of the justification of the sinner through faith, for to believe means to accept what is [already] there. If the world were not already justified, then to believe would have to mean performing a work of justification. The entire preaching of the Gospel is a message from God of a righteousness that has already been acquired by Him and is there for all.21

Those who say that God made the whole world righteous, but did not declare it righteous, actually deny the whole of justification once again. Indeed, if God had not (already) written and sealed the letter of pardon, we preachers would be liars and deceivers of the people if we told them: Just believe, and you are righteous. But now that God, through the resurrection of His Son, has signed the letter of grace for sinners and provided it with His divine seal, we can confidently preach: the world is justified, the world is reconciled with God — the latter expression could not be used either if the former were not true.

When the Lutheran Confessions repeatedly say that justification is obtained through faith, these passages also express that a justification must first be present which faith can accept, that faith does not have to first bring it about, but that it grasps it as already present. But if someone were to say: the forgiveness of sins is indeed already there, but not justification, he would again have to be ignorant of our Confessions, which explicitly teach that justification and the forgiveness of sins are the same thing. “We believe, teach, and confess that, according to the usage of Holy Scripture, the word justify in this article means to absolve, that is, to declare free from sins.” (Formula of Concord, Ep. Art. III, par. 7.)22

Especially in Walther’s remarks on absolution, “that is, the preaching of the Gospel to one or more specific persons who desire the comfort of the Gospel,” it becomes clear how the perfect redemption of all men through Christ lived in Walther’s heart. Absolution, says Walther, is grounded on complete redemption or general justification. “When the preacher absolves, he distributes a treasure that is already present, namely the already acquired forgiveness of sins.”23 Walther considers only that man to be a true Lutheran preacher who holds that in speaking the absolution he has absolved all penitents; and only that man to be a true Lutheran Christian who believes that through the preacher’s absolution he is truly acquitted by God. But he adds: “Of course, one can only believe this if one believes the world is redeemed; for if I believe this, then absolution is only the communication of the fact to the penitents that they were redeemed 1,800 years ago, and the entreaty: Only believe this, and you are saved.” The reason so many take offense at the absolution which is customary in the Lutheran Church is that they do not believe in the complete redemption of all men through Christ and therefore think we ascribe a special authority and mysterious power to the preachers as “ordained lords.” “But we say: It is no special skill to absolve someone; every ordinary Christian, every woman, every child can do this, even if they are only able to say that the Lord Jesus died for all and that whoever believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. For absolution does not rest on the quality of the speaker, but on the word of the Gospel of the reconciliation that has already happened.”

In this connection, Walther repeatedly emphasizes that one must not make the essence of the Gospel dependent on faith, but must regard it as a divine offer of grace valid in itself. “The glorious blessings of Christ have already been given to us — mark well! — they are have already been given to us (in the Gospel), and indeed they are always there for us, even if we do not believe.”24 If one makes the Gospel in its essence dependent on man’s believing, or, which is the same thing, if one speaks as if faith must first be there before the Gospel is valid and powerful in itself, or before the blessing of the forgiveness of sins is there for the sinner, then, first, this denies Christ’s all-sufficient merit and the redemption and reconciliation of the world; second, this makes faith into something quite different from what it actually is, for it is no longer a grasping and accepting of the forgiveness which is present, but a work that must still be added so that there may be forgiveness in the Gospel; finally, faith then has nothing at all to which it can hold. “If the Gospel is not valid unless man first believes it, what then is he to believe?” Faith is thus grounded on itself instead of on the Gospel. “This leads people who are in anguish and doubt about their salvation into a quandary.”25 Walther reminds us again and again that a doctrine or practice which requires faith to be present before the blessing of the forgiveness of sins are there, cannot comfort any afflicted person. “The afflicted person is the one who thinks, specifically, that he cannot believe. Such a person can only despair at this teaching, whereas one must try to convince him, specifically, that the Savior is already there for him, has already forgiven him, and wants to accept him.”26

Walther also discusses an objection here, namely, as to how this discussion of complete redemption, of general justification, of the Gospel as an absolution of the entire world of sinners, can be reconciled with the passages from Scripture which mention the wrath of God over the world which lies in wickedness, and especially over the unbelievers. Walther answers by distinguishing between Law and Gospel. Insofar as God looks at the world in Christ, there is “pure love, pure favor, pure grace” toward the world in His heart. Insofar as He considers it outside of Christ as lying in wickedness and especially as rejecting the Gospel, it lies under His wrath. Although there is no actual contradiction here, since the grace and wrath of God concerning the world are attributed to Him in different respects, yet an “inexpressible and unfathomable mystery” must nevertheless be acknowledged here. Because Scripture teaches both facts, we let them stand side by side. “It is the Lutheran way: if we find two things in God’s Word that we cannot reconcile, we simply let both stand and believe both as they read.”27

Footnotes

  1. 1. Synodal Conf., p. 20.
  2. Die luth. Lehre von der Rechtfertigung p. 35. Westl. Ber. 1875, pp. 32–40.
  3. 1. S. C., p. 68.
  4. Ibid., p. 31.
  5. Ibid., p. 61.
  6. Ibid., p. 34.
  7. Idid.
  8. Westl. Bericht 1874, p. 43.
  9. 1. S. C., p. 35.
  10. Ibid., p. 39.
  11. Westl. Ber. 1868, p. 31.
  12. 1. S. C. p. 36.
  13. Ibid., p. 39.
  14. Brosamen p. 138. Epistelpostille p. 211.
  15. Westl. Ber. 1875, p. 33.
  16. 1. S. C. p. 41 f.
  17. Ibid., p. 32.
  18. Ibid., p. 68.
  19. Ibid., p. 46.
  20. Ibid., 43 ff.
  21. Cf. on this especially Brosamen, pp. 142. 143.
  22. 1. S. C. p. 46.
  23. Ibid,. p. 43.
  24. Westl. Ber. 1874, p. 47.
  25. Ibid,. pp. 57–64.
  26. Ibid.,, p. 38.
  27. 1. S. C., pp. 31 f., 36 f.